STUDENT

SAMPLE QUESTIONS

www.Beaver.my
 01 Signal Fire (Easy)
A long time ago in Japan, some Ninjas served the shogun ate government. In case of
emergency, they used smoke signals to communicate with each other.

In the above figure, the red point is the location of the shogun ate government. Each blue point
is a location where a smoke signal should be lit. Also, two points are joined by a line if their
smoke signals can be seen from each other. At every point, there are some Ninjas who stand on
all day long. They fire a smoke when they see a signal from a point joined to theirs, just 1
minute after this signal was fired.

Question
How much later will there be a signal lit at all points?
A. 4 minutes
B. 5 minutes
C. 6 minutes
D. 8 minutes
The correct answer is B
The lights in the locations adjacent to Shogun ate will be fired in 1 minute, so you can write 1
at the places next to the Shogun ate. After 2 minutes from the beginning the lights adjacent to
ones already lightened are fired, so you can write 2 at the places next to the places with 1
and continue like that:

After you just have to look for the higher lit time among the points.

It's informatics
To solve the problem like this you can use a graph. A graph is a representation of a set of
objects (in this case smoke signals) which are connected in some way. Objects are represented
by vertices and connections by edges. Graphs can be used to represent any kind of networks,
for example networks of communication or the structure of a website. Most known graph
algorithms are graph coloring algorithms and distance finding algorithm. Here we used a
Breadth-First Search algorithm.
 02 Build the bridges! (Easy)
Mr. Beaver must build bridges connecting all islands and both river banks directly or indirectly.
No bridge is built yet. Next to each possible bridge is the number of work days it takes to build
it. You can click on any bridge to build it or remove it.

Question

How many work days are needed at least?

Answer

Open integer (number entered by student)

The answer is 39:
Removing any bridge results in unreachable islands. All built bridges use less work days (or the
same number) as the not built bridges. Therefore this is the best possible solution.

It's informatics

In informatics the above problem is called the Minimum spanning tree problem. It is a
problem than can be efficiently solved with the so-called Kruskal's algorithm:

Start with no bridges.

At each step, build the bridge requiring the least work days unless this bridge is not
necessary because it would connect two islands that are already joined by a path.

Of course, the problem in informatics generally is not about islands, bridges and work days, but
about graphs (like networks), consisting of nodes (islands) and edges (bridge).
 03 Domino circles (Easy)
Build a largest possible circle with the following dominoes such that the same numbers touch.
You may use the following animation for your tests. If you click on a tile in the circle, it will flip.

Question

What is the largest number of above dominoes that can form a circle?

Answer

A) 6
B) 7
C) 8
D) 9
The correct answer is 7.
Of every number appears an even number of times in the circle. The numbers 1, 2, 4 and 5 each
appear an odd number of times. So we have to leave out at least 2 dominoes. The following
pictures shows, that one can make a circle with 7 dominoes:

It's informatics
This problem can be modelled using a graph, where each number is a vertex and each domino
is an edge:

A domino circle is now a closed path which can be drawn without lifting the pen. Such a path is
called a Eulerian Path. It has the property that from any vertex an even number of edges is
used (as many times).
 04 Serial Transmission (Easy)
Beavers Alice and Bob want to send signals in the night using a flashlight. They transmit
sequences of 4 symbols '0' or '1'. Before each sequence they turn on the light for 1 second. If
the symbol is '0', the light is on for 1 second and if the symbol is '1', the light is off for 1 second.
After each sequence a pause of at least 1 second is made. For example, the sequences '1001'
and '0110' are transmitted as follows:

Question

Which sequence or sequences are transmitted in the following diagram?

Answer

A) 1100 and 0011

B) 0011 and 1100
C) 1100 and 0001
D) 1010 and 0011
The correct answer is A
A) is correct (1100 and 0011). The pause starts 5 seconds after the flashlight is turned on the
first time. 7 seconds later the second sequence starts.

It's informatics
This task describes the core of the RS232 protocol for data exchange over a serial cable. Some
GPS devices and many programmable microcontrollers use this protocol for its simplicity.
Turned off corresponds to a negative voltage and turned on to a positive voltage. Normally one
uses 8 Bits (Symbols '0' or '1') which make up 1 Byte (instead of only four like in this task).
 05 Spinning toy (Easy)

Beavers discovered a piece of wood into which worms made a system of tunnels and pits. A
handy father used it to make a toy. In the beginning we put a marble in the middle. The goal is
to get the marble out by turning the wheel to the left (L) and right (R). By each turn the marble
runs to the next pit or at the end out of the wheel.

By which of the following sequences the marble reaches the exit?

Answer (Multiple Choice)

A) LRRLR
B) RLRLL
C) LRRLRL
D) LRRRRL
The correct answer is C
The problem is difficult to solve if one has to imagine turning the wheel left and right (unless
(s)he turn the monitor or prints the image on a sheet of paper). It is, however, quite easy if we
recognize that we are actually searching through a path in a tree a common task in past
Bebras competitions.

It's Informatics
Describing paths in binary trees is a common operation in computer science.
 06 From A to C (Medium)
You have got a mini robot that can execute the following commands:

V - a step forward

L (angle) - rotation to the angle given within the brackets left,

R (angle) - rotation to the angle given within the brackets right

If more than one command should be executed, the commands can be strung together using
the operation "+". For example V + L(20) + V + R(2) means that first the robot should make a
step forward, then turn left 20 degrees, then make a step forward and then turn right 2
degrees.

To be able to repeat a set of commands, operation "*" can be used. For example 20*(V)
means to repeat 20 times the action, which is given within the brackets after the "*", namely to
make a step forward. So this example will result in 20 steps forward.

For example 180*(V+L(1)) draws a half circle.

At the beginning the mini robot is positioned at point A and looks in the direction B.

Which of the predefined command combinations brings the mini robot from A to C along
curved path?

A) 90 *(V+ L(1) +V+ R(1))

B) 90 *(V+ L(1) ) + 90 * (V+ R(1))

C) 90 *(V+ L(1) ) + R(30)+ 90 * (V+ R(1))

D) L(90) + 90*(V+ L(1) ) + R(90)+ 90 * (V+ R(1))

The correct answer is B
The first part 90 *(V+ L(1) ) means that the following actions are repeated 90 times: one step
forward and a rotation to the left by one degree. So the robot will first move into direction B
but after each step will turn to left and will finally be oriented upwards. Analogous the second
part 90 * (V+ R(1)) will be executed afterwards, which causes that the robot moves to point C
with the final orientation to the left.

A) is false, because due to the partial sequence "V + R (1)" the path of the robot differs from the
green line.
C) is incorrect because the partial sequence "R (30)" will cause a different path as the intended
one.
D) is incorrect because the partial sequence "L (90)" at the beginning leads the robot in the
wrong direction.

It's Informatics!
The robot starts in an initial state (point A, sight direction AB) and performs program
commands until it reaches the end of the code. If you specify the correct robot code sequences,
then it is possible to bring the robot from the starting-point to the finish. It could be just one
wrong command in the entire code to lead the robot to a wrong way.
 07 River Inspection (Medium)

A bunch of beavers need to make an inspection of the river

today: at least one of them has to swim along each of the river
streams.
Due to the heavy current, beavers can only swim downstream
and they can only do one trip from A to B. So the inspectors
start at A, end they will meet at B. Of course, every stream of
the river (as you can see in the picture) has to be inspected.

Question

What is the minimum number of beavers needed for a full inspection?

Answer
A)3
B)4
C)5
D)6
Explanation

As one can see, the red line in the picture crosses six
different streams. No beaver will be able to take more than
one of these streams. When you place one beaver on each
of these streams, it is possible to cover all streams. The line
is not unique, but has to cross as much lines of the graph as
possible. This give the informatics idea of sweeping line.

Its informatics
The river with all its streams is an example of a planar directed graph. It means a graph where
the edges have directions and do not cross each other. Analyzing the flow in such a directed
graph is often needed, for instance when you want to investigate the flow in a computer
program. The algorithm used, making a cut through as many streams as possible, is suited for
these flow problems. Studying these kinds of algorithms is a large topic in computer science.
 08 Delicious Dinner (Medium)

Mama beaver Anny will prepare the dinner for her little beavers. When she checked the fridge,
she found four ingredients: broccoli, mackerel, tomatoes and beef. And she decided to make
two dishes out of them. Each dish is cooked in several steps Si, where each of them takes 5
minutes. The product of one step is ingredient to one or several other steps. Moreover, the
result can be ingredient of steps for different dishes. To make things more clear for herself, she
draw the following diagram showing the product of which step is an ingredient of a subsequent
step:

Obviously, would her stove have a single ring, it would take her 55 minutes (11 steps times 5
minutes) to prepare both dishes.
Question
However, Anny's stove has three rings. How much time at least will need Anny to prepare both
dishes?
Answer
a)20 minutes b)25 minutes c)30 minutes d)35 minutes e) 40 minutes
The correct answer is B
The correct answer is b). The assignment for each cooking step is as the following:

It's informatics
Non-periodic job ob scheduling on a limited number of processors (three in this case). Also, the
jobs are of the same complexity (5 minutes).
 09 Visiting Friends (Medium)

Mr. Beaver has 4 friends living in different villages, and he plans to visit one of these friends
every afternoon. Initially, all arrows point to the left road. When passing the intersection, Mr.
Beaver would switch the arrow to the opposite direction. For example, on day 1, Mr. Beaver
takes the road on the left at the first intersection, takes the left road on the second
intersection, and reaches Village W. On day 2, Mr. Beaver turns right at the first intersection,
then left at the second intersection, and arrives Village Y.

Day 1 Day 2

Question
Which village will Mr. Beaver visit on day 30?

Answer
a) Village
b)Village X
c) Village Y
d) Village Z
The correct answer is C
Village Y. When encountering an intersection, he takes the road on the left for odd number
encounters, and the road on the right on even number encounters. Day 30 is an even number
encounter at the first intersection, who Mr. Beaver will take the road on the right and the other
hand, the second intersection will be Mr. Beavers odd number encounter, so he will take the
road on the left. Another way to look at it: 4 days later, the state will be the same as is was. So
day 1 is the same as day 5 and day 9 and so on, and day 30 is the same as day 2.

It's informatics
This task can be solved with top-down analysis that determines which road to take for each
intersection. Also, this task can be solved by observing the periodicity from the simulation,
which is a common skill to solve problems in informatics. It is about modulo counting.
 10 Beaver back home (Hard)

Little beaver John lives in a wonderful land with Islands and bridges. The picture reproduces the
structure of the land. John uses a Bicycle to move over it, and it takes 20 seconds for him to
move from one cell to an adjacent.
John called for his mother and said that he is now somewhere on the field (marked with
crosses) and is going home right now. (Home is marked with a circle).

Question
John always uses the fastest path to the home. How long will mother wait for John?
a) at least 6 min 20 sec, at most 8 min 40 sec
b) at least 6 min 20 sec, at most 9 min 20 sec
c) at least 7 min, at most 8 min 20 sec
d) at least 7 min, at most 9 min 00 sec
Answer
c) at least 7 min, at most 8 min 20 sec

There are two possibilities to get home, either to go over the top-left island or not. We will call
the paths that go over this Island as type-1 paths, and the paths that do not go over it as type-2
paths.
On the picture we left just several crosses on the field. Three crosses in a column are crosses
which shortest paths of type-1 are equal to the shortest paths of type-2. The bottom one is thus
the cross that is most distant from the destination. One needs 25 steps to reach the
destination; it is 8 min 20 sec.
Two other crosses are the crosses that are the most close to the destination. It takes 21 steps to
reach destination from them that is 7 min.

Its Informatics
The task is about the shortest path problem and also contains a max-min optimization problem;
it means that one should find some maximum (the longest waiting time) over minimums
(shortest paths).
 11 The magic machine (Hard)

Beaver Dylan is playing with a very strange machine. The machine is composed of glass bubbles
containing beans. Those bubbles are connected together with big push buttons. Here is a
picture of the game:

When you press on a button, two things are happening successively:

The machine checks that there is at least one bean in all the bubble that are linked to
the button (that is, there is an arrow from the bubble to the button)

If the check is successful, one bean disappear from all the source bubbles, and one
bean is added to all the destination bubbles (that is, there is an arrow from the button
to the bubble).

For example, pressing B will remove one bean from the top bubble and create one bean in the
bottom bubble.

Which of the following sequence of button presses leads the machine in a situation where it
is not possible to change anything to the machine, no matter what button is pressed?

A) B B C A B A
B) B C B C B A
C) B B C B C C
D) B C B B A A
The correct answer is C.
The idea to lead the machine to a deadlock is to take all the beans towards the bubble on the
left. Triggering three times button B and then button C (or other possible interleaving) transfers
the beans there.
All the other proposed scenarios do not lead the machine to a deadlock.

It's Informatics!
This problem is an illustration of Petri nets, a formalism that is used to describe concurrent
reactive systems and that can be used to simulate their behaviour or to perform analyses on
them. Being able to simulate a Petri net helps to understand how the behaviour of complex
concurrent reactive systems can be modelled.
 12 Raid Array (Hard)

RAID (redundant array of independent disks) is a storage technology that combines multiple
disk drive components into a logical unit. Data is distributed across the drives in one of several
ways called "RAID levels". Raid 0 distributes data across multiple drives to increase
performance but any drive failure destroys the array (see the picture below).

Raid 1 - mirrors data across multiple drives to increase redundancy. The array continues to
operate as long as at least one drive is functioning (see the picture below).

Questions
Which of these Raid arrays will sustain stability after losing two disks?
The correct answer is C
Image A is incorrect losing first two disks from the left causes the Raid 0 array above them to
fail which causes the top Raid 0 array to fail.
Image B is incorrect losing first two disks from the left causes the Raid 1 array above them to
fail which causes the top Raid 0 array to fail.
Image D is incorrect losing the second and third disks from the left causes both Raid 0 array
above them to fail which causes the top Raid 1 array to fail.
Image C is correct this array actually can lose any three disks and still sustain stability.

Its informatics
The task is about data storage technologies which increase storage performance and
redundancy. These disk array connections are easily displayable in model diagrams. So this task
can be considered as the structure task. This could be a hard task for the students this
technology isnt taught in school.